Behind the Mask
by fanfictionwriter0623
Summary: Upon entering the academy, Naruto cannot stand his biased teachers and classmates. The Hokage has a solution, give Naruto a new Identity as Arata Kimura. Follow Naruto as he is free to learn and grow. But what happens when someone grows close to his false identity? Will he force her way or let her see "Behind the Mask" Features a smarter and less silly Naruto. Naruto x Tenten.


The inspiration for this story comes from "Genius of Konoha" and "Naruto One Man Team". I'm sorry for not updating in a while, but I was on vacation for a long time and couldn't write.

IMPORTANT the academy will start at FOURTEEN and end at SEVENTEEN. I know this is a big change, but I need my story to take place in the academy and genin ages, and there cannot really be lasting romance at twelve years old, or fourteen either for that matter, but the actual romance will take place later. Also, as Naruto failed the graduation exam twice, and it is held every six months, he should be graduating with Team Guy.

I'm also borrowing heavily the idea of the Tsunade-style transformation form "Uchiha Legend", which is a great story by the way, but I hope because it is just a tool and not even used on the same person or for the exact same person, and the fact that I'm giving credit where credit is due, this may be excused.

* * *

"Hokage-sama, I want to be a ninja."As Naruto asked for the elderly Hokage's permission, the older man simply sighed. It was probably for the best that the boy wanted to become a ninja, as he would most likely be forced into the role even if he did not want to become one. The council, especially Danzo, would not ‒ even with their deep hatred for the boy and fear of him gaining power ‒ allow the potential of the Kyuubi's power go to waste. No, they would try their hardest to train him into a weapon to be used by the village.

Thankfully for the boy's sake, the Hokage still had enough power to keep Naruto from that fate. But the part that saddened him the most was the fact that he knew the academy would be extremely biased towards him. They would not let the "Kyuubi Brat" do well or even learn as a normal child would be able to, and for that he felt ashamed. Ashamed that he had released the secret that caused him so much pain, ashamed that he could not take care of the child of one of him best friends and the best man he ever knew, ashamed of the fact that Naruto would never get to live like an ordinary child, ashamed that the inherent potential of this child would go to waste.

While the fact was unknown to Naruto and almost everyone in Konoha, Naruto's parents were extremely powerful ninja. Minato, his successor and perhaps the greatest of the Hokage, had been heralded as the single most powerful ninja in the elemental nations in his prime, and this had been done at a very young age. His capacity for learning and creating new jutsu was unmatched, even by his most prodigious student, the traitorous snake sannin.

His mother was a powerful ninja in her own right. There were no Kunoichi in Konoha that could even come close to matching her power, save Tsunade. Her skill in kenjutsu was well-known across the elemental nations and it was said that it was her that taught Minato most of his advanced fuuinjutsu.

As the child of such powerful people he could easily have inherited a good deal of their talent, and the elderly Sarutobi could already see the penchant for learning from Minato and the sheer determination from Kushina. He stealthily wiped a tear from his eye as he thought of how all this talent would go to waste, how the potential for Naruto to excel would go to waste. Not only that, but it would be just another area of the young boy's life where he would be held down by the stigma of being the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. Everywhere they saw the young boy, they would close off his paths to greatness.

One such example was learning to read. At the age of six, Naruto had yet to learn the alphabet and how to read. Thus, the Hokage, the most important man in the village, was relegated to the lowly task of teaching a child how to read. Not that he minded, he loved being with Naruto. The boy was a fast learner and that made it all the more fun for Sarutobi to teach Naruto all the things he should have learned.

The Hokage feared that the academy would be another area in Naruto's life where he would be held down, chained to a life of misery; unable to soar to great heights. However, the elderly Hokage had a plan, a plan that came to him while talking with his last student that was still loyal to Konoha.

_-Flashback-_

The Hokage was sitting at his desk; day had begun to turn into night and he was still waiting for Jiraiya to arrive.

"Hokage-sama, master Jiraiya is here to see you," his secretary called from the adjacent room.

"Send him right in. I have been expecting him," was the old man's response.

The door opened to reveal Jiraiya with a handful of scrolls, which Sarutobi assumed was information gathered by his famous spy network. "Jiraiya, it is good to see you again; it has been a while."

"Indeed it has, Sarutobi-sensei. I have some important information for you concerning the village. It seems that..." The two men went on for a few hours discussing world events, Jiraiya's information, and how it affected Konoha.

As the moon climbed high in the sky, Sarutobi sighed. "It's getting late; I must head to bed." Rising slowly, he cracked his back loudly.

"You're getting old, Sensei. Planning to step down soon?"

"You are right as you so usually are, Jiraiya. I am getting too old for this job. My mind is not as sharp as it was and my body is the same. I've already retired once before. But the question remains, who would replace me? The only possible candidates would be you, Tsunade, and Danzo. I know you would never take the job‒"

"Never in a million years," Jiraiya interrupted.

"‒Tsunade has a deep hatred for the village after Dan and Nawaki, and Danzo is a warmongering old fool who, if given power, would abuse it and destroy the village in the process. No, I will have to wait for someone from the next generation to take up the mantle. The generation that will be entering the academy is very promising; it has many clan heirs, and Naruto of course."

Jiraiya's mood darkened at the mention of the energetic blonde's name. I wish there was more we could do for him, Naruto that is. He has been held back all his life and he won't do well at the academy. I would do something if I could without endangering the welfare of the village and the boy himself." Both men knew the danger Naruto would be in if he was around Jiraiya and with his extreme resemblance to the late Fourth Hokage.

"As you say Jiraiya, I'm getting old and must head to bed, but remember, I'm not the only old one in this room. I have to say, your grey hair does nothing to make you look younger," he said with a chuckle.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it." The younger, but still old man said. "I only wish that Tsu-hime would teach me that transformation of hers. It could help a lot of people, but she's selfish like that when it comes to Konoha. I doubt anyone other than Dan, Nawaki, Shizune, you, myself, or Naruto would be eligible in her mind, and those people on that list would still need a good reason.

These words gave the old Hokage an epiphany. Naruto could definitely need this justu. He would need to make a plan with Jiraiya far in advance to contact and convince Tsunade and he would need Naruto to attend the academy for at least a day to see why it was necessary, but it just might work and give the boy the future he deserved.

As Jiraiya was walking out of his office, Sarutobi called, "Wait Jiraiya, there is one more matter that I just remembered, which we must discuss."

"What is it sensei?"

"Your words about Tsunade gave me an amazing idea about how we can help Naruto. He may not agree to it, but if he wants, we could offer to give Naruto a permanent henge like Tsunade to give him a new identity and a real shot at life.

"I don't know, Sensei, what will happen if people find out? How will we get Tsunade to teach him the technique? How will he maintain such an advanced technique? Your idea is good but full of holes."

"As for the first part, that will be entirely up to Naruto, but I believe it will give him a chance to change the minds of the younger generation. It would be far easier to change their perception of him if he was given a chance to show them how nice he is and how he is not the Kyuubi, and with this disguise, they will have to give him a chance.

As for Tsunade, I believe that she will help out, if only this once, because it is solely for Naruto's good, and not for Konoha's. Additionally, she most likely feels guilty about abandoning her godson and will do this to try to make up for it. Now, to help him keep up the transformation, I believe if you confer with Tsunade, you will be able to come up with some sort of seal that will allow him to keep it up without having to learn such an advanced technique."

"Wow Sensei, that actually seems like a good plan."

"Yes, now all we need is Tsunade's support."

_-Flashback End-_

Thinking over the plan he had made with Jiraiya, Sarutobi agreed. "Yes Naruto, you may enter the academy, but if anything goes wrong, I'm always here," he finished with a smile.

"Thank you Jiji," Naruto said calmly. "I won't let you down. I'll become a great ninja to protect everyone in this village."

"I know you will Naruto," he said and simultaneously thought, 'You already have Naruto. You have no idea how much you've for this village.'

_-The Next Day-_

Naruto woke up especially early so as not to be late on his first day of the academy, the first day of his new life. He went into his kitchen and opened the cupboard. He saw all the ramen that he had and thought, 'As much as I love ramen, I can't eat it all the time.' Eventually he settled on some eggs and orange juice: a healthy breakfast to start the day.

He made his way to the academy quickly, even though he was still fifteen minutes ahead of schedule. He was the first one in the room and sat down on the right side of one of the desks in the middle. Eventually the other students began to fill in, although none of them would sit at Naruto's desk. 'Strange,' he thought. 'Maybe they all have other friends they met before the academy.' As the last student came in, there were no other seats except at Naruto's desk. The final student looked around for almost a minute, scanning the room to see if there were any other seats available before finally settling in the seat at Naruto's desk on the other side. He edged away as far as he could in his seat.

Naruto was discouraged that no one wanted to sit next to him, but he brushed off as just one of those weird things that he was excluded from. He had hoped, while knowing that it was only a small chance, that he would make some friends at the academy, but it was not his primary objective at the school. He was there to become a shinobi of the leaf, and he could do it without anyone's help, be it family or friends or teachers.

Just then the teacher walked into the class and all of the idle chatter between the other students was silenced out of respect for the teacher. "Hello class," he began. "My name is Mizuki and I will be your academy teacher for this year. You will call me Mizuki-sensei. We will begin your introduction to the shinobi world after I make a roll call."

He started to call out all of the names of the students one by one until he finally closed his book. "That's everyone. Let's begin the lesson." As soon as Naruto heard his first statement his hand shot up in the air. He realized that his name wasn't called. He could see the teacher had seen his hand up in the air and had moved his vision past it with a sneer but no acknowledgement of him to let him ask his question.

"Excuse me Mizuki-sensei, but was my name on that list? I didn't hear it called. Can you double-"

"No." He was interrupted rudely by the teacher.

"But-"

"No talking back. Go out in the hall for this period. I will talk to you after class. Next time it will be a detention."

Naruto sighed and picked up his stuff and moved out to the hall. His hope of unbiased teachers dashed, he did not know it he would even be able to be able to pass the academy and become a ninja. His dream to protect his home might be over before it even began. As he walked out of the room, he glanced around and his eyes accidentally met with those of a girl with brown hair done up into two buns and a sympathetic look on her face. He didn't want anyone's sympathy, but it was better than the looks of superiority and annoyance that everyone else possessed.

* * *

Tenten was extremely surprised by the rudeness of her teacher. She had seen the spiky, blond-haired kid before and also the accompanying looks of disgust on the faces of the parents and most children. He seemed like a nice kid and she wondered what he had done to receive such infamy. Again, here, he acted very politely and her sensei, an adult who was not supposed to favor some students over others, had acted so rudely and he just went along with it.

She wondered if that was what his entire life was: repeated insults, both direct and hidden, met with meek politeness. If that was what his life was like she was extremely impressed by his attitude. She would definitely have rebelled and tried to do something to get back at those who would have insulted her.

He did not rejoin their class as they moved to their next period and she did not see him again until lunch. As she walked into the cafeteria, she sat alone. Most of the girls were either fangirls for the great (and let it be known that she thought that word sarcastically) Hyuuga prodigy, Hyuuga Neji and most of the guys were weird like the class dobe Rock Lee, or stuck up like the object of all the girls affections. So she sat alone by choice and she really didn't mind. She didn't want to be friends with any of them either.

But it seemed that there was someone else sitting alone, the blond haired kid she thought about earlier. She thought she remembered that his name was Naruto and that his last name started with a U: Uzu- or Umi- something. He seemed like he desperately wanted someone to sit with.

Additionally, he didn't have anything to eat. She wondered what type of parents would have sent their kid off to the first day of school without making sure he had something to eat, but when she tried to remember his parents, she remembered that she had never seen him with parents. She wondered if he had any parents or was in fact an orphan.

She mentally decided that after school she would do a little bit of reconnaissance about him to try to find out more about him and him and perhaps find out why he was so despised. Maybe she would even ask her parents. He seemed like a nice guy, neither stuck up or weird like so many of the boys in her class. Maybe he would make a good friend.

* * *

Naruto was sitting slumped in the corner of the lunchroom. Everyone around was eating lunch and chatting with friends and taking full advantage of the hour they had off from the rigors of the ninja school. Well, almost everyone. Naruto had nothing to eat for lunch, but he was fine; he was used to it. Even with the allowance the Hokage gave him every month, the ridiculous overcharging that was universal among the shops and vendors of Konoha only allowed him to a few items of real food along with his staples of instant ramen, and he had finished the real food up this morning. There were numerous occasions where he missed a meal a day, sometimes all of them, and by now he had gotten used to it.

The thing that saddened him most was that everyone else was talking with their friends. They didn't even see that there was a boy who had chosen to sit in the corner; they didn't even see his loneliness. He scanned the room one last time and to his surprise, he saw someone who noticed him. It was that bun-haired girl from earlier, when he made eye contact with her on the way out of the room. She saw him and gave him the same look as before. He was slightly happy that there was at least one person who saw him, but it was not enough to make everything alright.

He decided that he couldn't take it anymore. Abruptly, he stood up and walked mechanically and quickly out of the lunchroom; none of the other students even noticed his disappearance. He solemnly walked back to his crappy apartment, keeping his face stoic, as though even the slightest show of emotion on his face would show how weak he felt right now. As he made it to his apartment complex he started to walk a little bit faster, and by the time he reached his apartment, he was in an all out sprint, though at that time of day no one was around to see his weakness.

Slamming the door violently, he allowed the emotionless mask he had been wearing on his walk home to drop, showing the face of a young man who had just given up. He fell down on his old bed and cried to himself, holding back most of the noise to keep anyone from knowing his anguish, but none of the tears which showed the true emotional pain of this repeated verbal abuse and failure to see him a true human being, which had been adding up for years and finally reached a boiling point in the lonely halls of of a place in which many found companionship.

Lying there, he forced himself to confront the bleak possibilities of his future. He would not be able to become a ninja, his senseis made that abundantly clear, and now his dream of becoming the Hokage and protecting everyone in the village were gone forever. He couldn't get another job in Konoha, everyone was too biased against him for that to be a real possibility. For the first time in his life, Naruto had no goal, nothing to work towards, nothing he could try to conquer with his sole tool of his incredible determination.

After wallowing in self-pity and his own tears for longer than he should have allowed for himself, he finally forced himself to think rationally again. He would have to ask the Hokage for help. He had helped him out when he was kicked out of the orphanage, another time when he thought his life and dreams were done for.

With that thought still on his mind, he ran out of his apartment, jumping across rooftops, and loving the feel of the wind on his face as he raced toward the tall, monolithic, Hokage Tower. He slowed himself down just before he went in the door; it would not be good for him to go racing through the building. Arriving on the top floor where the Hokage worked, he passed by the secretary who gave him a look of disdain before allowing him to pass through to the Hokage's office. The secretary had learned long ago of Naruto's special relationship with the Hokage and she had also learned that interfering with that relationship by stopping Naruto from entering the elderly leader's office would not be good for her job.

As soon as he opened the door, the Hokage smiled upon seeing Naruto and called to him. "Ah Naruto, it is a pleasure to see you. How was your first day at the academy? Did you enjoy learning how to become a ninja?"

When the Hokage saw Naruto's face fall as soon as he mentioned the academy, he assumed that the predictions he and Jiraiya had made about his mistreatment by the teachers and students were true. He was very happy that he had thought about this situation in advance and made special preparations for the young blonde.

"No, Jiji, I really didn't enjoy the academy. None of the students wanted to be near me and the teachers were all biased. Are you sure that you can't tell me why every dislikes me so much?" Naruto had long since been aware of his status in the village and had come to the Hokage with questions. The Hokage told him that he knew why he was so hated, but it was an important secret and he couldn't be told until he was a genin.

"No Naruto, you'll have to wait until you're a genin, just like I told you last time."

Again the young blonde's face fell. "That's just it, Jiji. I'm not sure if I can even become a ninja with all of these people working to keep me down. I don't know what to do." At this a small smile snuck its way onto the elderly leader's face. Naruto wondered why the Hokage was smiling while he informed him of his misfortune.

"Well, Naruto. I think I may have a solution for you. About a month ago I was talking with Jiraiya of the Sannin, and I informed him of your mistreatment and my fears that you would not get a proper education at the academy. He then quickly envisioned a scheme to help you. That's all I will tell you for now, but I got him to stay in the village for the week and help you out with this. Can you meet him at the hot springs tomorrow?" The Hokage had to change a few details of his conversation with Jiraiya, as the blonde didn't know his relation to the toad sage and the level of caring the self-proclaimed super pervert had for his godson.

At this point, Naruto was in complete awe. First, the Hokage was helping him out to get a proper education, and now he would get to meet and hopefully be trained by the legendary ninja, who, in his mind, was second only to the Hokages in terms of awesomeness. "Yes, I'll be there all right!" Naruto could barely contain his excitement. "Is there anything I should study up on before meeting him?"

"Actually, it would be good for you to work on accessing your chakra and improving your chakra control. Here is a book on both, however, he will probably not expect anything from you so anything you can learn from this book would speed up the process."

Naruto raced back to his apartment to practice all he could before meeting the famous ninja and to hopefully impress him. That evening he accessed his chakra for the first time and learned the basic hand seals. Naruto was actually a very smart kid and a great learner when his education was not being sabotaged. By the time he finished with these exercises, he was exhausted. Normally, if he had something so exciting in the morning, he would hardly be able to sleep, but this time he was so tired from using his chakra for the first time that he fell asleep straight away.

_-The Next Day-_

Naruto was waiting impatiently at the hot spring for Jiraiya to show up when he caught sight of an old man with white hair peeping on the women's bath.

"Hey, old man!" he yelled. "What are you doing peeping on those women at the hot springs." He did not realize that his voice would carry all the way to said women, who would give the old pervert the beatdown of a lifetime, or instead, as he did this very often, his daily beatdown.

As Naruto walked over the the man who was now sprawled facedown in the dirt, the pervert asked him, "Hey, are you the kid I'm supposed to be helping, Naruto, was it?" He had to keep up the image that he did not know who the blonde kid was, lest anyone get suspicious.

"Yeah, that's me," he replied before it hit him. "Wait a second, does that mean that you're Jiraiya of the Sannin; you're a pervert!" He could not believe that such a powerful ninja would act so irresponsibly.

"Nope," he replied. "I'm a SUPER PERVERT!"

Naruto disliked Jiraiya's perverted actions and decided to make fun of him a bit. "Huh? Did you say something?" Jiraiya's face fell at this. "Anyways, tell me how you're going to help me out."

"Hey kid, have you ever met anyone name Kakashi?"

"No. Why do you ask?"

"Nevermind," he said exasperatedly. "Let's get going. Let me provide you with some background first. My old teammate Tsunade, also a member of the Sannin, uses a permanent physical transformation to hide her true age, appearing to be in her twenties when she's actually my age. So my idea is that we'll do the same for you, but instead of changing your age, we'll give you a new identity."

Naruto was surprised by this unconventional, yet seemingly sound plan. "There's only one problem, Jiraiya. I can't use chakra that well yet."

"Don't fear kid, did you think I wouldn't think of that. I am a seal master. I talked with Tsunade and figured out a seal that I can place on you that will do the technique for you. All you need to do is channel some chakra into it, and I think you can learn how to do that by the end of the week."

"Why the end of the week?"

"Well, as I said, I need to teach you how to do it, and plus, it would be a little strange if Naruto Uzumaki disappeared on day and the new guy showed up the next."

"Would it be helpful if I already knew some of the stuff. I can channel chakra and can do the basic hand signs. The Hokage gave me a book on them last night."

"Wow, you're really something, kid," he thought. 'Just like your dad,' he thought. "How about I teach you some more chakra control techniques."

Naruto jumped at the chance to learn from such a legendary ninja. "That would be great, but you better not do anything perverted while you're teaching me. I don't want to get in trouble."

* * *

Tenten only grew more distant after the first day at the academy. All week the girls had squealed over how awesome the Hyuuga prodigy was and all the guys were either complete weirdos like Rock Lee or pretentious to the extreme. She had quickly forgot about the strange blonde-haired kid as she hadn't seen him after that first day.

She was now walking to the academy on the first day of the second week of the academy. 'I really hate Mondays,' She thought. 'If the academy is going to be this boring all the time I don't know how we'll make it. We haven't even learned anything about chakra or ninja techniques or even weapons. Well, I don't really need instruction on that.'

Tenten's father was the proud owner of the Higurashi Weapons Shop and as a result, she already had a good deal of skill with weapons.

When she got to her classroom she saw a group of girls huddled together discussing something animatedly. She dismissed it in her head, probably more fangirling over Neji. But when she passed by them she was surprised by what she heard.

"Yeah, it's true that he looks cool, but I wonder if he's as good as Neji."

She was very surprised that they were talking about anybody other than their beloved Neji. She thought about why they were comparing anyone to Neji when they had all of last week to decide that he was the best thing on Earth. She quickly scanned the room and saw someone she didn't know. Then she figured it out, there was a new student in the class.

She walked over to get a good look at him, maybe he could be someone cool she could be friends with. He had red hair, and not just orange/ginger hair, but it was actually fiery red. It was short and very spiky, remarkably similar to the main character on her favorite anime show, but in red instead of orange. (She liked the anime because she liked watching their swordfights, as she wanted to learn kenjutsu.) He had a sharp angled face and he wore black pants and a dark grey shirt with the leaf symbol on it in red. But she was immediately drawn to his eyes which were a brilliant shade of blue. The seat next to him was open and she sat down there.

* * *

Naruto was amazed at how much a few simple changes to his appearance and a change of clothes could disguise him so completely. The only thing the transformation really changed were his hair color and a little bit of his hairstyle and the shape of his face. There weren't actually that many changes; the main thing that allowed him to hide his identity was his lack of whisker marks and his distinctive orange jumpsuit.

He was woken from his musings on his disguise when a girl sat down next to him. He could vaguely recall her appearance, but he couldn't put his finger on it. The girl sat in silence for a moment, as if debating what to say to him.

"Hello, my name is Tenten Higurashi," she girl said, introducing herself.

"Arata Kimura," he said curtly.

"Are you a new student here?" She questioned, hoping to get a conversation going with the new student.

"Yes," he replied effectively killing her attempts at conversation. They sat in silence for another moment before she started talking again.

"Are you trying to be rude? Because that's what you're doing. You're not going to make any friends here that way."

"I'm sorry, Tenten, that was not my intention," he said, properly chastised.

"Then why were you acting like that? If you weren't trying to be rude, is that how you treat your friends and family, or just strangers?" When she said this he flinched when she mentioned not making any friends.

"You seem nice so I'll tell you this, but don't tell anyone else, okay." When she nodded he went on. "You see, I've never had a friend before."

She looked very astonished when she heard this. She had a few friends that weren't going to be ninja and they didn't go to the academy and she was one of the most antisocial people she knew.

"Didn't your parents set you up on playdates with other kids when you were younger?" She saw that he flinched again when she mentioned parents.

"I don't have any parents."

"Did you know them or did they-"

"No, I never knew them, I don't even know who they were," he cut her off in the middle of her question. She could see that this was a sore subject for him, and understandably so. It must have been hard for him not to even know who his parents were, if they even ever loved him.

She decided to move onto a new subject. "So why are you just joining our class?"

"I just moved here," he replied. "I used to live in an orphanage in a small town near Konoha. The kids and workers in the orphanage never really liked me for some reason. I always wanted to get out of there. And when I displayed aptitude as a ninja, the orphanage workers contacted the Hokage, most likely to get rid of me. Anyways, now I have a small apartment and a small allowance from the Hokage until I graduate, and I'll eventually have to pay him back when I become a ninja."

"Thanks for telling me that," she said. "I knew you weren't rude, you had a good reason. And now I think you made your first friend."

"Really?" He appeared incredulous, as if having a friend was some great prize that he had spontaneously won.

"Yes. An you will be my first friend in the academy."

"Really? Why? You seem like such a nice person."

"All the girls are fangirls for the Hyuuga teme, and all the guys are either weird or pretentious."

"I guess we'll have to stick together in the academy."

"You got that right," she replied, happy to have found someone to be her friend in the academy.


End file.
